Kate is a mixed media artist. After achieving a Degree in Art and Education, she has been teaching for 25 years, both in school and running workshops. Her current work explores botanical form, using bold shapes and colours with Acrylic on board and canvas. Kate spends her time in the studio on her family farm near Bath, drawing inspiration from nature and her surroundings to fuel her creativity. 

When not painting or running workshops, she enjoys walking the dogs, riding her horse, and spending time with her four boys. You can find Kate at www.clayandpaper.art and on Instagram: @katebatesart.

Sweet pea blooms in flat blocks of colour against a hot pink background: deep magenta, cobalt, near-black indigo, violet, lemon and shell pink. Each flower is reduced to a single curled petal shape, with no shading or detail, yet remains instantly recognisable. Sage green stems and leaves run between them in loose diagonals, tendrils curling at the joints.

The composition fills the board edge to edge, reading as pattern as readily as it does as still life. A bold, cheerful piece that holds its own at a distance and rewards a closer look.